Boxer Amir Khan Really Thinks He Could Beat Conor McGregor

“My speed would be perfect.”

On the eve of this Saturday’s bout with WBC middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, the biggest fight of Amir Khan’s life, the 29-year-old British boxer cannot stop talking about MMA.

“My speed would be perfect, it’s hit and move. And I can kick hard,” he recently told reporters. “If I was to fight the champion around 147 pounds, I would fancy my chances. McGregor or whoever.”

This is more than just idle speculation for Khan, who is part owner of the MMA outfit Super Fight League, which operates primarily in India. After watching fights at a recent Super Fight League event, Khan walked away thinking he could have “stepped in and done the business.”

Khan’s bold claim about besting McGregor was met with universal ridicule by MMA fans, which is what happens anytime a boxer talks about MMA, and Fight Hub even gave him the chance to walk it back. He refused. “I am serious about it,” he said. “Having the speed and skill set, definitely for me going into MMA would not be a problem.”

Khan certainly isn’t the first boxer to think he could get in the cage and dominate. Of course, most of them were wrong. Former three-weight champion James Toney famously lost to Randy Couture at UFC 118 and few other boxers have done much of note in the Octagon. Not that it’s impossible. Perhaps Khan, once the golden boy of British boxing, may want to try something new if he gets pounded by the younger, stronger Alvarez, as many fight insiders predict.